Drive Image 2002

Drive Image 2002, which we tested in a late beta version, works either as a cloning or as a backup tool, but it emphasizes its backup features. Unlike Norton Ghost 2002, Drive Image includes a Windows interface for cloning or restoring an image and for creating, deleting, and hiding partitions. If the operation does not affect the drive currently in use, you can run the whole operation in Windows without rebooting; if the operation affects the current drive, then the system reboots to a Virtual Floppy disk on your hard drive, performs the operation automatically, and restarts Windows.

An optional setup wizard guides you through the steps of selecting a partition to back up and choosing a location in which to store the drive image; if your drive has blank space, the program offers to create a new partition as safe storage and hides the partition from Windows so that the partition won't take up a drive letter. Settings are stored in configuration files so that you can repeat them without selecting the options each time. Unlike previous versions, Drive Image 2002 doesn't have a convenient interface for switching between prebuilt configuration files for different operations. In case you need to switch, however, the help file explains how to do so from the command line.

Drive Image can clone drives across a network to a machine with a blank hard drive. It uses the boot disk builder utility to create a floppy disk that boots the new machine and automatically connects across the network to a source drive. If the final product works as promisedwe had no problems with the betathis will be the best drive-imaging product on the market.

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